Humanism In Dante Research Paper

Dante and the Road to Humanism During the Renaissance, the belief of humanism became extremely popular. After the black plague people began to wonder if God had abandoned them. As a result, they began to look for their own answers through observation and experiment; this method was called empiricism. Through this man began to place himself at the center of the universe instead of God. Men began to embrace their own talents and spent less time worrying about the next life and more living in the current one. Humanism was also brought up by a desire to re-live the Classical time period, or the golden age; therefore the humanistic education consisted of studies of Greek, Latin, art, music and philosophy. Throughout Dante’s work he emphasizes

While he was away, the Black Guelfs completely took over Florence, and so Dante was exiled from his native city for the rest of his life. While in exile, he writes the Divine Comedy, Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise, and completed the Inferno in 1314. The poem follows Dante after he strays off the path of moral truth and gets lost in the dark woods. In the woods, Dante is greeted by three beasts; Virgil saves him from them and becomes his guide through hell. In hell, Dante has the opportunity to speak with multiple sinners within the nine circles. Overall the journey took three days, beginning on Good Friday, and ending on Easter Sunday. Although Dante is considered to be one of the best Christian poets, he leaves no evidence of Christian forgiveness in his poem and bases his work off of the idea of severe ancient laws and divine retribution. The Inferno is considered a humanist work because of the references to ancient Greek characters, application of ordinary beings into a godly position and humanist concepts portrayed in scenes of motivation. In the Malebolge, the bridge from bolgia six to bolgia seven had been destroyed; because the bridge had fallen Dante and Virgil had to climb

Petrarch was a renowned poet and scholar and in 1341 he travelled to Rome to accept the crown as poet laureate. Petrarch traveled frequently for pleasure, became well known around Europe and was considered the “first tourist”. His work revived interest in classical literature. Petrarch was an admirer of classical philosophy and a devout Christian. He combined both of these concepts in his work and believed that humans have great intellectual power and should have the opportunities to use their abilities to the fullest. Petrarch and Dante had similar humanist beliefs and displayed them clearly in their works; however, Petrarch disregarded the religious views of Dante and did not refer to them for inspiration. Petrarch did not appreciate Dante’s older philosophy and sought out a new method of thinking; “This novelty, the great conquest and the profound divergence from aesthetics and the mental orientation of the Middle Ages, explains most clearly Petrarch’s attitude towards Dante. It was the natural reaction or, one would say, the revolt of those who start a new way of thinking or a new taste against the previous